


Grace

by FairyQueen (etoilecourageuse)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: picfor1000, Existential Angst, F/M, Love, Post-Second War with Voldemort, Punishment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-24 02:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6137863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etoilecourageuse/pseuds/FairyQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the war, Narcissa and Lucius find themselves facing the ruins of their lives, but they are not willing to surrender.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grace

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Pic For 1000](http://picfor1000.livejournal.com/) challenge; inspired by [this](https://www.flickr.com/photos/curtbianchi/7842417374) image.

“This is an abomination…”

The disgust in her husband’s voice was unmistakeable, suppressed anger glistening dangerously within his eyes. Narcissa could not help but sigh as she looked at him, shaking her head in silent dismay, and yet… Yet, could she truly blame him for his reaction? Could she truly blame him for putting into words what until this moment neither of them had dared even to think about, what they both had banned from their minds until they were forced to remember, forced to act?

It _was_ an abomination, but what could they do? What other choice did they have than to watch, to watch as everything they had so loved, everything they had lived for came crumbling down before their very eyes, what other choice did they have than to surrender? 

Lucius… He suffered. Of course he suffered, could barely stand to watch as his possessions were taken from him, as his own house was torn apart from the inside, beginning to feel less and less like their home. It pained Narcissa to see how despairingly he attempted to keep his composure and to swallow down his emotions, pained her so to be incapable of comforting him, to know that she would never understand, truly… 

Malfoy Manor had been her home, too, but it was not the same, was not the same as to him, as how could it be? She had not grown up within these walls, had been a stranger at first until she found shelter in her husband’s arms, growing familiar to what had frightened at first, slowly, so slowly. It had been her home, too… But only through him. 

They had lost everything. They had lost everything after the war, had lost their reputation, their wealth, even their home… There would be an auction to sell their furniture, their belongings, no matter how precious to them, no matter how long they had been their family’s property, an auction as though to humiliate them further, as though to punish them further... 

They had lost everything, had fallen, fallen from grace, and yet… Yet they still had each other, yet they were alive, had emerged from the war hand in hand, fallen asleep so closely intertwined that for a moment it felt as though they had become one. And wasn’t it all that mattered? Wasn’t it all that mattered that they were alive, that they all were alive? To think of Andromeda, to think of her sister who had suffered such unspeakable losses and done nothing, nothing at all but follow her heart, whose only crime it had been to love, to think of her grief, her despair… Narcissa was ashamed, so ashamed of herself that once she had considered her actions a betrayal, so ashamed that she had allowed herself to waste all those years for nothing… Never again would she be able to look into her sister’s eyes, no matter how burning her desire. 

What a fool she was to still believe material values to be of significance, even now, what a fool she was to shed tears over irrelevances, even if in secret. They had lost everything, everything except each other. And how grateful she was to still know her husband by her side, to know him safe and close, so close to her… Couldn’t he have been taken from her, too? To imagine, even to imagine... 

Wasn’t she supposed to smile? Wasn’t she supposed to smile, to laugh and to each day give voice to her gratitude that they were together still, that nothing now, nothing at all would be capable of tearing them apart? Wasn’t she supposed to forget about anything else? 

How anxiously they had awaited the trial, afraid beyond words and yet always full of hope, never tiring in their attempts to keep one another from breaking down beneath the pressure of uncertainty and concern. How anxiously they had awaited the trial and how relieved they had been then … Lucius would not be taken to Azkaban; not again, they would not be separated once more… 

They would not be separated… But the sentence had been harsh, taking everything from them, everything aside from the bare necessities to survive, dispelling them from their home that for too long had been far beyond their own control. 

Perhaps it was for the best… Perhaps it was for the best to leave Malfoy Manor behind as too much had happened, as too many memories would haunt them within these walls… 

One last time Narcissa glanced at the mirror to examine her reflection, looking down at the simple black robe and absently raising her hand to her chest, enclosing her fingers about the pearls her mother had given to her on her deathbed, the pearls she treasured so deeply, had been so desperate to keep. 

“What will become of us, Cissy?” Lucius asked quietly as he stepped behind her, sighing, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her hairline, tenderly, so tenderly… His anger had given way to sadness but there was no concern within his voice despite his question, none at all. 

Narcissa would not respond until long after they had turned away from the mirror at last, long after they had stepped through the door and discovered that the auction had already begun, not until they reached for their wands, ready to Disapparate, ready to leave the past behind. 

“I don’t know…” she whispered but smiled, smiled at him and for a moment allowed herself to get lost within his eyes, smiled as gently she caressed his cheek. They were alive, and it was all that mattered. They were alive… 

A small cottage by the ocean would become their home now, modest and quiet, far away from the world they had once known, the world they once loved and then come to despise. Perhaps, she thought once more, it was for the best… Perhaps only now they would be capable of truly letting go… Perhaps only now they would be free.


End file.
